0765 ITALY (Sicily) - Mount Etna (UNESCO WHS)

As one of the world’s most active and iconic volcanoes, and also as an outstanding example of ongoing geological processes and volcanic landforms, Mount Etna was one of the 19 sites added to the World Heritage List this year, on the 37th session of the UNESCO's World Heritage Committee, held between 16 and 27 June in Cambodia.

Located on the east coast of Sicily, close to Messina and Catania, this stratovolcano, the tallest active volcano on the European continent (3,329m), lies above the convergent plate margin between the African Plate and the Eurasian Plate. Its almost continuous eruptive activity continues to influence volcanology, geophysics and other Earth science disciplines. The volcano also supports important terrestrial ecosystems including endemic flora and fauna and its activity makes it a natural laboratory for the study of ecological and biological processes. The fertile volcanic soils support extensive agriculture, with vineyards and orchards spread across the lower slopes of the mountain and the broad Plain of Catania to the south.

Eruptions of Etna follow a variety of patterns, but rarely threaten the inhabited areas around the volcano. Since the year AD 1600, at least 60 flank eruptions and countless summit eruptions have occurred, nearly half since the start of the 20th century. The most destructive eruption since 122 BC was in 1669 and produced lava flows that destroyed at least 10 villages on its southern flank before reaching the city walls of the town of Catania. 

0764 INDIA (Sikkim) - Kangchenjunga

Gaurav, who send me this postcard, say that depicts K2, the second-highest mountain on Earth, after Mount Everest, but it isn't so. As it is written on the postcard, but also how looks the peak, it's about Kangchenjunga (called by the locals Five Treasures of Snow), the third highest mountain in the world (8,586 m), located in a section of the Himalayas called Kangchenjunga Himal, on the boundary between Nepal and the Indian state of Sikkim. Two of the five peaks are in Nepal, and the other three (main, central, and south) are on the border of North Sikkim and Nepal.

0763 THAILAND (Buriram) - Prasat Hin Muang Tum - part of Phimai, its Cultural Route and the Associated Temples of Phanomroong and Muang Tum (UNESCO WHS - Tentative List)

Prasat Hin Muang Tum (in translation, according to some sources "stone castle of the humble city", and to others "low land castle") is a 1,000 years old Khmer temple complex, located in North East Thailand, near another better known Khmer complex, Phanom Rung, not far from the border with Cambodia. Built primarily in Angkor style, during a time when large parts of Thailand were controlled by the Khmer empire, in the late 10th and early 11th centuries, was created as a Hindu temple dedicated to Shiva, although Vishnu was also worshipped there.

0762 UNITED KINGDOM (England) - Canterbury Cathedral, St. Augustine's Abbey, and St. Martin's Church (UNESCO WHS)

In 597 arrived in the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Kent Saint Augustine, with 40 monks and some Frankish priests, sent by Pope to Christianize Bretwalda (King) Æthelberht, who was married a Christian princess, Bertha, daughter of Charibert I the King of Paris. Because the main town of the kingdom was Canterbury, the saint founded an episcopal see here and became the first Archbishop of Canterbury, a position that now heads the Church of England and the worldwide Anglican Communion. Because Christ Church Cathedral, the ruins of St Augustine’s Abbey, and St Martin’s Church "reflect milestones in the history of Christianity in Britain", they were included among the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1988. 

0761 KYRGYZSTAN - Komuz player in national clothes

The komuz (qomuz), an ancient fretless string instrument, is the best-known national instrument and one of the better-known Kyrgyz national symbols. It is generally made from a single piece of wood (usually apricot or juniper), has three strings traditionally made out of gut, and is used either as accompaniment or as a lead instrument in a wide variety of musical styles, including aytysh (a song competition between akyns), and the recitation of the lengthy verse epic Manas or other heroic and lyric poetry. The names of parts of the komuz are often allusions to body parts, particularly of horses.

0497 & 0758 BRAZIL (Minas Gerais) - Sanctuary of Bom Jesus do Congonhas (UNESCO WHS)

Posted on 06.02.2013 and completed on 22.07.2013
Some people, when get from life more than they deserved, think should thank to someone, more precisely to give, in one form or another, a part of what they got. In nowadays there are a lot of projects, of "causes", in which they can involve, but some time ago things were much simpler: they contented of divinity, building churches or at least making donations, as allowed him the pocket and the soul. Not a few among the works of art of the past were based on such motivations. Among the people of this type was the Portuguese adventurer Feliciano Mendes, who commissioned in the 18th century (to fulfill a vow made while he was desperately ill) the twelve sculptures of old testament prophets which adorn the forecourt of the Santuário do Bom Jesus do Matosinhos in Congonhas, a Brazilian city located in the state of Minas Gerais. Since 1985 UNESCO included this basilica to the World Heritage Sites list, under the name Sanctuary of Bom Jesus do Congonhas.

The twelve sculptures don't correspond to the Twelve Minor Prophets, but include some of the Major Prophets and prophets whose works are part of the Old Testament deuterocanon: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Baruch, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Obadiah, Amos, Jonah, Nahum and Habakkuk. On the postcard are three of them: Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Joel (from the foreground to the plan removed). This soapstone sculptures are works of the artist Antônio Francisco Lisboa, commonly known as Aleijadinho. "As has been pointed out on numerous occasions", said UNESCO, "with Aleijadinho, a half-breed born in Vila Rica, Baroque sculpture takes on an aesthetic dimension that is unknown to Europe."

0757 CHINA (Sichuan) - Two men from the Sichuan province

This postcard captures an image from an ancient town in the Sichuan province, located in the southwest of the country, between Himalayas, Qinling Range and mountainous areas of Yunnan, and crossed by Yangtze River. Historically known as the "Province of Abundance", because is one of the major agricultural production bases of China, it was also the base for numerous amphibious military forces and served as the ideal hiding frontier for political refugees.

0722, 0756 SWEDEN (Stockholm) - Stockholm City Hall

0722 Stockholm City Hall

Posted on 06.07.2013, 20.07.2013
Located on the eastern tip of Kungsholmen island, Stockholm City Hall (Stadshuset in Swedish) is the building of the Municipal Council and houses offices and conference rooms as well as ceremonial halls, and the luxury restaurant Stadshuskällaren. Erected between 1911 and 1923 after the projects of Ragnar Östberg, which have undergone many changes, it was carried out by craftsmen using traditional techniques. Were used nearly eight million dark red bricks, called munktegel (monks's brick) because of their traditional use in the construction of monasteries and churches.

0756 Stockholm City Hall - interior

 

The building follows a roughly rectangular plan, being built around two open spaces, a piazza called Borgargården on the eastern side, and the Blue Hall (Blå hallen) to the west. The Blue Hall, named so even it hasn't blue decorations, is known as the dining hall used for the banquet held after the annual Nobel Prize award ceremony. After the 1,300 guests have finished dining, they move upstairs to the Stadshus’s most jaw-dropping room, the shimmering Golden Hall (Gyllene Salen - in the second postcard), where 19 million gold mosaic tiles decorate the walls.

0123, 0225 & 0755 LITHUANIA (Vilnius) - Trakai Historical National Park (UNESCO - Tentative List)

0225 Trakai Historical National Park (2)

Posted on 13.02.2012, 27.05.2012, and 20.07.2013
Along the history, many territories located today in Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine and Belarus were owned successively by one or other of them, whether they were called Kievan Rus, Kingdom of Poland, Grand Duchy of Lithuania or Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. If at all these "players" we add the allogeneous involved - from the east the Tatars and Grand Duchy of Moscow (become Russian Empire and later Soviet Union) and from the west the Teutonic Knights and Kingdom of Prussia (become Germany) - things get complicated in the region. So it's no wonder that Trakai was built and preserved by people of different nationalities, respectively Karaims, Tatars, Lithuanians, Russians, Jews and Poles (order is random).

0123 Trakai Historical National Park (1)

The town began to grow in the 13th century in the place named Senieji Trakai (Old Trakai), and was first mentioned  in 1337 in Teutonic Knights chronicles. When Grand Duke Gediminas has settled in Vilnius, Senieji Trakai was inherited by his son the Duke Kęstutis, who moved the town to its current location. A new castle was built in the strait between lakes Galvė and Luka, known as the Peninsula Castle, and another one, known as the Island Castle, on one of the 21 islands of Lake Galvė. At the end of the 14th century the town was in the center of a conflict between Grand Duke Jogaila and his uncle, Kęstutis. In 1392 the conflict has ended, and Kęstutis's son, Vytautas, became the Grand Duke of Lithuania.

0755 Trakai Historical National Park (3)

He spent much time in Trakai, even though its official capital was Vilnius. Here also he will die in 1430. In early 15th century he replaced the wooden fortress with a stone-built castle. Actually the principal construction material was red bricks, stone blocks being used only in the foundations and the upper parts of buildings, and.its style could be described as Gothic, with some Romanesque features. During the rule of Sigismund Augustus (r. 1548–1569), the castle was redecorated in a Renaissance style. After the establishment of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, in 1569, the town's importance declined, the castle becoming a luxurious prison for the political prisoners.

0754 FRANCE (Brittany) - Dance Gwenedour of Pays Pourlet

Once, the Celts formed the largest group of peoples in Europe, covering a huge territory (from Ireland to Asia Minor, and from Iberian Peninsula to the South of Germany), and their contribution to the formation of the majority of the peoples in central and western continent was essential. Brittany (Breizh), previously a kingdom and then a duchy, united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province, is one of the six Celtic nations which have survived until nowadays. It occupies the northwest peninsula of continental Europe in northwest France, and traditionaly was divided into pays or bro ("country" in French respectively Breton). One of these is Pays Pourlet, which spans around the commune Guémené-sur-Scorff, in the area where they speak a breton dialect of low-Vannes type, Pourlet Breton.

0753 UNITED STATES (Pennsylvania) - Independence Hall (UNESCO WHS)

Probably that none of the delegates from the thirteen colonies who signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776 in Philadelphia, in statehouse of Pennsylvania (now known as Independence Hall), ever dreamed that the newly formed state will reach in less than two centuries one of the world's superpowers. After all it was about 1.5 million colonists (one fifth of then England's population), in overwhelming majority farmers, occupying, that's right, 2,150,000 square km (an area about 16 times the one of England).

0752 SWITZERLAND (Ticino) - Montebello Castle - part of Three Castles, Defensive Wall and Ramparts of the Market-Town of Bellinzona (UNESCO WHS)

0752 Montebello Castle

Because occupies an privileged geographic location in the Alps, with acces to the Po valley southward, to the high alpine passes of Nufenen, St. Gotthard, Lukmanier and San Bernardino northward, and to the San Jorio Pass to the eastward, Bellinzona was always coveted by the powers of the day. Ruled succesively by the Romans, Ostrogoths, Byzantines, Longobards, and Franks, it became eventually part of the Holy Roman Empire, that has long disputed it with the Pope. For a while, it was divided between the Ruscas family (pro-Imperial) and the House of Visconti (pro-papacy), and in 1500 joined the Swiss Confederation, as a condominium under the joint administration of Uri, Schwyz and Nidwalden.

0751 GERMANY (Baden-Württemberg) - The Historical Merchants Hall in Freiburg im Breisgau

Founded in 1120 as a free market town on the western edge of the Black Forest, in the Upper Rhine Plain, on the Dreisam river, at the foot of the hill Schlossberg, Freiburg reached in 14th century one of the richest cities in Europe, due the silver mines in Mount Schauinsland. In order to protect its welfare and facilitate the commerce, it entered into an alliance alongside with Basel, Colmar, and Breisach, known as the Genossenschaft des Rappenpfennigs (Rappenpfennig Collective), which lasted until the end of the 16th century, even if meanwhile the veins of silver were dwindling.

0750 JAPAN (Kantō) - Shinjuku, Tokyo

Integrated into Tokyo City in 1920, Shinjuku (New Lodge) became in 1947 one of the 23 special wards of Tokyo, that together make up the core and the most populous part of Tokyo Metropolis. It's a major commercial and administrative centre, housing the world's busiest train station (Shinjuku Station) and the administration centre for the government of Tokyo.Among its notable areas are Golden Gai (with tiny shanty-style bars and clubs frequented by artists), Kabukichō (a red-light district), Kagurazaka (once one of Tokyo's last remaining geisha districts), Shin-Ōkubo (Tokyo's historic ethnic Korean neighborhood), Shinjuku Gyoen (a large park), Shinjuku Ni-chōme (Tokyo's best-known gay district), and Nishi-Shinjuku.

0749 MOROCCO - Traditional clothes and musical instruments

Even if the 99.1% of the Moroccans have an Arab and / or Berber ethnic background (therefore the population has a high degree of homogeneity), the Moroccan folklore is very rich and diverse, and I dare to say that music and dance are keystones of Moroccan traditional culture. If I should choose a single Moroccan folk performance at that I could attend, one and only one, I would choose, without doubt, the dance, because it provides many elements of this culture: the dance itself, but also the music and musical instruments, as well as dancers and musicians costumes.

0748 GERMANY (Hesse) - Hundertwasserhaus Waldspirale in Darmstadt

If Die Grüne Zitadelle von Magdeburg (The Green Citadel of Magdeburg) has been started a year before the death of Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Hundertwasserhaus Waldspirale (the Wooded Spiral) was completed even in the year of the artist's death, in 2000, so it can be interpreted as a loud testament to his hatred of straight lines (the "devil's tools", according to his opinion) and his allegiance to nature. The Waldspirale is a residential building complex located in Darmstadt's Bürgerparkviertel, and contains 105 apartments, a parking garage, a kiosk as well as a café and a bar.

0747 CROATIA (Primorje-Gorski Kotar) - Saint Vitus Cathedral in Rijeka

Founded by Celts as Tarsatica and became municipium under the Romans as Flumen, the current city Rijeka was ruled successively, from the 5th century onwards, by the Ostrogoths, the Byzantines, the Lombards, the Avars, the Franks, the Croats, the Hungarians and the Venetians before coming under the control of the Archduchy of Austria in 1466, where it remained for over 450 years, since 1723 as free port. Because of its strategic position (on Kvarner Bay, an inlet of the Adriatic Sea), and of its deep-water port, the city was fiercely contested among Italy, Hungary, and Croatia, changing hands and demographics many times over centuries.

0746 CANADA (Ontario) - Rideau Canal (UNESCO WHS)

The Rideau Canal, also known as the Rideau Waterway, connects the city of Ottawa on the Ottawa River with the city of Kingston, on Lake Ontario, using sections of major rivers, including the Rideau and the Cataraqui, as well as some lakes. It was opened in 1832 as a precaution in case of war with the United States, but it remains in use today primarily for pleasure boating, with most of its original structures (canal, the locks, associated buildings and forts) intact. It is the oldest continuously operated canal system in North America, and in 2007 it was registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

0744 MALAYSIA (Kuala Lumpur) - Petaling Street

Petaling Street (Jalan Petaling), the Chinatown of Kuala Lumpur, is the best place to shop for counterfeit branded products and for trying out a large selection of local Chinese cuisine. This doesn't mean that exclusively offer pirated products, the genuine goods being also available. As can be seen in the postcard, the street is always crowded not only with tourists, but also with locals.

0102 & 0743 POLAND (Lesser Poland) - Cracow's Historic Centre (UNESCO WHS)

Posted on 20.01.2012 and completed on 16.07.2013
To try to talk about the history of Poland in a single paragraph would be a haphazard approach and an evidence of superficiality. Few countries have known such status fluctuations in the modern era and the contemporary, from the one of high power (during the union with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania stretched from the Baltic almost to the Black Sea) to the inexistence as state, at the end of the 18th century being partitioned between Prussia, Russia and Austria. In fact raising and collapse characterizes it, as well as the verticality of the attitude. As an example the Warsaw Uprising from the autumn of 1944 is undoubtedly one of the most heroic acts in WWII, even if the enormous sacrifices of the insurgents had no other result than the Soviets advance facility, which will keep Poland in their area of influence until the late '80s. 

Can't talk about the history of Poland without talking about Kraków, a city situated in Lesser Poland (Małopolska), on the Vistula River, at the foot of Wawel Hill. It’s not known when it was founded, but in 965 a merchant from Cordoba wrote about it as the bustling trade center of Slavonic Europe. Its northern neighbors of the Piasts’ dynasty incorporated the Kraków province into their principality in the 990s, and thus was born the Kingdom of Poland. In the year 1000 the city had its own bishop, and in 1038 it became Poland’s capital, and its Wawel Castle the residence of Polish kings, but the city’s Golden Age came at the end of the 15th century. For its outstanding medieval architecture, the Historic Centre of Kraków, based on four core areas (the market square; the Wawel hill, inhabited since the Palaeolithic and the site of the imperial palace; the urban district of Kazimierz; and the Stradom quarter), is among the first sites chosen for the UNESCO's original World Heritage List, in 1978.

The Main Square (Rynek Główny - shown in the first postcard) dates back to the 13th century, and is the largest medieval town square in Europe. It is surrounded by old brick buildings (kamienice), palaces and churches, its center being dominated by the Sukiennice (the Cloth Hall or Drapers' Hall - in the first postcard, in right), rebuilt in 1555 in the Renaissance style. On one side of the Sukiennice is the Town Hall Tower (Wieża ratuszowa), on the other the 10th century Church of St. Wojciech (St. Adalbert's) and 1898 Adam Mickiewicz Monument. Rising above the square are the Gothic towers of St. Mary's Basilica (Kościół Mariacki - shown in the first postcard, in center, but also in the second).